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Russiya
UNDER CONSTRUCTION and I mean like WOAH The largest nation on the Baltican continent, Russiya sits on the far South of the map, and is a country of ice, snow and rock. As such, it is no surprise that the nation's colours are blue, white and silver. Presided over by Czar Vladimir Saladze Orlov II, it is a harsh, unforgiving landscape and its people are fittingly strong and hardy in order to survive its bitter weathers. Russiya's capital city is Kostrova. Also known as the City of Bronze, it stands in the shadow of Bol’shoĭ - Russiya's greatest mountain. With this unscaleable giant at its back and the treacherous Zhennyi mountain-range to either side, its is an almost impenetrable safeguard and one of Russiya's strongest holds in times of war. Kostrova stands apart from the few sparse cities of Russiya for its technological advancements - plated in shining brass for heat-insulation and with windows of green glass, it has an undeniable 'steampunk' feel to it and the use of candles and torches is long past, having made way for the introduction of electricity. Castle Orlov About 100ft up the North-West face of Bol’shoĭ lies the architectural magnificence of Castle Orlov. Hewn into the very rock itself and overlooking Kostrova beneath it, it is a leviathan of grey granite, black marble and crimson-sheened windows. The sweat and blood of a thousand workers went into carving out its curving walls and spiked turrets into the mountain's face, and it remains the almighty legacy of Russiya’s first Czar – Sviatoslav Orlov of Konchaka. Though their forefather is long-since dead, the Orlov family has maintained their position for four hundred years and the castle, though weathered over time, remains as strong today as it ever was. The towering might of Bol’shoĭ protects the castle's interior it from the South-Western winds that blow in from the sea and provides some measure of shelter, leaving it chilly, but not unbearably so. Not to the residents, anyway, who as Russiyans are well used to the country’s biting temperatures. The castle is accessed by a winding road curving up the mountain's base, wide enough to allow carriages to ascend to the courtyard. There is also another route of access, but one which is a matter of great secrecy - leading out from the back of the castle, it goes deep within the very mountain itself, its exit being twenty miles away on the shoreline. This tunnel has never, in 400 years, been used, but it remains well-kept as a last-ditch opportunity, if all else failed, for the royal family to escape. The Family Orlov Before the onset of the reign of Sviatoslav Orlov of Konchaka in 1334, Russiya was far removed from the superpower it is today. Its monarchy had fallen in the Black Revolution five years prior and the country had been dropped into civil war, left to wrack and ruin. Sviatoslav Orlov, then 45 and tied to the ex-monarchy through marriage alone, had been an up-and-coming presence in Russiyan politics for many years, and a cut-throat one at that - Russiya's political system was often splattered with blood in those years, and Orlov was not above getting his hands dirty to achieve his goals. It was this cut-throat nature that saw him ascend beyond the realms of the civil unrest, as he had no qualms with erasing his rivals entirely. Orlov's vision of Russiya's future differed from his political rivals in that he did not seek to rebuild the monarchy - on the contrary, he envisioned a dictatorship that would take the matters of the country's welfare out of the hands of the sparring people and into the mind of one individual. He would be that individual. On the 22nd of January, 1334, Orlov rallied the followers he had gathered and started a swift and bloody revolution that matched even the massacre of its predecessor five years before. They tore through the political centre of Kostrova and eradicated the opposition at hand - the streets ran red with blood for a full seven days, the city littered with the dead and dying, and as the sun rose on January 29th, Sviatoslav Orlov found himself King. The rest, as they say, is history. Orlov, despite his methods of gaining the throne, turned out to be a peaceful and just ruler, and the crimes of his past faded into nothing in the eyes of the people. Construction of Castle Orlov began not a year into his reign, and four hundred years later it remains the greatest reminder of the first Czar's legacy. Category:Places Category:Baltica